Tag: consume

The Wedding and Things That Go With It

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The wedding went rather well, considering the downpour and other mishaps. It was great to have my Chicago friends in town and to have some Seattle friends present among the throngs of family.

Everyone got a commemorative umbrella! Thank goodness we brought those!

Here’s some shout outs to some of the products and services that made this all possible:
We had our after-party at Ivar’s Acres of Clams and at the end of it, served cupcakes from Cupcake Royale in Ballard. The rings were delivered and beautiful, thanks to Sumiche. Jon’s suit was thanks to the great help at Mario’s. My dress was thanks to Kate Kamphausen. Maggie at Scream in Capitol Hill did my hair. My nails and toes were done at FlowerPower near Greenlake. My necklace was made by Karazi, who I found in the Ballard Farmer’s Market. Finally, we stayed in the honeymoon suite at the Alexis Hotel. That was TRULY awesome. Not cheap, by any means, but a great getaway!

I can’t thank my friends Amy and Marta enough. They really helped pull things together.

So here’s a story for you. It’s about a very interesting woman named Nasreen. In the base of the Alexis Hotel is a perfume shop, Parfumerie Nasreen. I love perfume, Jon’s gotten into some men-smells himself, so after a stint in our jacuzzi at the hotel, we called down to see when they closed. The answer was 15 min, so we got dressed and headed down. This is where we met Nasreen, and her young assistant. Nasreen asked us how we were, what brought us to the Alexis, etc. We said that we had just gotten married… and then we were off. She told us how she had been married 28 yrs, and that the most important thing was to be friends… best friends. We said it had rained at the wedding, and she shared that it meant that it was nothing but clear weather for the rest of our lives. She asked what kind of fragrances I liked, I replied that I’d been wearing Stella and Pure Turquoise lately. She picked up Dorin’s Un Air de Paris, exclusive to her shop in the US, and sprayed some on my right arm. She then picked up Versace’s Crystal Noir, which she sprayed on my left arm. I gave them both a sniff, and was definitely at home with the Versace, but the Dorin had something classic about it. And it should, I think it’s based on a 19th century perfume recipe. 🙂 Meanwhile, Jon picked up some aftershave to match a fragrance I had gotten him last year(Pasha de Cartier). I said yes to the Un Air de Paris, and we started to pay for our stuff. She insisted on giving us a bunch of samples, which was wonderful. Then she stopped and said something to the effect of, “One more thing…” She reached and pulled a bottle of champagne out of nowhere. It was a bottle of (I think) Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label. She handed it to me and said, “You must drink this tonight. Don’t hold onto it for later.” She then told us to order room service, since Jimmy was cooking that night. She did not steer us wrong in the slightest. 🙂

Seriously random… AND WONDERFUL. Thanks Nasreen!

I’ve fielded a lot of questions with regards to the marriage, most often has been the question of whether or not I’m keeping my name. The answer is yes, and mostly because I like my name and feel it’s part of who I am and I’m reluctant to change that or wipe that away. And then there’s the practical answer, which is it’s a huge headache to change names on government and financial documents. So it just makes it easier in the end.

Though apparently confusing for a lot of people, esp. since I don’t want to be called Mrs.. I’ve always been a Ms.. Call it my feminist upbringing, my strongwill or hardheadedness. I don’t really mind. I didn’t feel I should be judged for my not being married, and I feel that I shouldn’t be judged for being married. My marital status has little do do with anything, and I don’t think it should be right there in some title, esp. when there are issues revolving around marriage and equality that are yet unresolved in the world, and yes this fine nation. So I am Ms. and I shall stay that way. This seems to raise some eyebrows, but then again, I’d hate to think I’d stop shaking things up just because I’m married.

I know that I will be called Mrs. HusbandsName and the like for the rest of my days, and for some I will politely correct and others (such as telemarketers) I will correct with a valiant glee.

All marriage stuff aside, my life has resumed back to where it was, if not sporadically interupted by a question regarding the wedding or how it feels to be married (answer: not a hell of a lot different.)

And with that, I think it’s time for a nap.

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Requisite Update

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Whoa… no January post.. so I never gave the post family/Disney redux!! Quickly put, myself, Jon and his family went to Walt Disney World for Xmas and New Years. It was a hypnotically good time filled with occasional amazing meals at night, long lines for everything, tacky, sparkly things I just had to have and a barrel of joy that just had to be the drugs in the water. I came away dazed and rather horrified at how much TinkerBell stuff I had purchased. It’s not something I’d really want to do again any time soon, but really… it’s not that different from Burning Man.

Moving on…

I’ve been really busy with my new job. It’s quite a trip, I must say. Inside where I work, it’s hard to tell just who the crazy person is sometimes… or even more fun, who’s the person who has pending charges of rape, murder, etc, and who has the charges for public urination, unlawful improsnment, assault. We have it all. Violent, unmanaged tempers and docile, polite individuals. And then there are the patients!! hahahaha. Seriously though, it really is that varied. On my caseload, I have intolerant and hostile people that will call me the worst things you’ve ever heard, and polite, thankful people that will tell me that I’m too nice. Meanwhile, among my own class at the hospital, the psychiatric social workers, we’re fighting for recognition as a professional class, and the pay to go with it.

Ah, the politics of a state institution!

In other news, I’m officially getting married April 8. I have 2 friends in Chicago working on important aspects of the wedding, including making the dress and arranging the ceremony. Tomorrow I’ll be talking w/ them about details. I’ve also been in correspondence with people at www.sumiche.com about getting custom, ecologically sensitive rings made for Jon and I. This is going to hopefully be a simple, memorable occasion. We’re thinking of going to Cupcake Royale for a cupcake tasting for the wedding cake-ish thing.

In additional news, I’ve been having fun amassing a new wardrobe thanks to my new job. And also, before I forget it, I officially quit my employment w/ Babeland, which is sad, but wasn’t managable w/ the new job and hellish commute. Let’s see, what else should I write here?

My friend Damien will be moving into my building from Chicago in just a month or so. It’s very exciting. Welcome to Seattle, Damien!

That’s all for now. Thanks for watching. Spring is coming soon!!

Brokeback Mountain (possible spoilers)

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Yesterday I saw the much hyped Brokeback Mountain, aka The Gay Cowboy Movie.

The movie had some beautiful shots and the acting was exceptional.

The only thing is… it’s really not much of a cowboy movie, or at least, not the cowboy movies I’ve ever seen. It’s a drama that follows two characters in 1963 Wyoming who meet, fall in love, and continue to weave into each other’s lives for the next 20 or so years. Because the characters are MSM (men sleeping with men, “not queer’) and this is the 20th century American West, they both see (though one sees more than the other) the hazard of flaunting their love. They are a bit careless at times however. They get older. They move to different places, get married to women and have children. One ends up doing well financially, the other not so much. Meanwhile they see each other intermittantly.

The movie really wasn’t that gay. Yes, the characters were men that slept with each other, but they were well closeted and didn’t ever seem to self-identify as gay. There was some tit-action on the screne, but in no part did you see the men’s wangs, and only BARELY did you seee their butts, and you never saw either of them looking at, or towards, each other’s wangs/buttocks. They did actively seem to like to kiss each other though. Maybe that’s *really gay* and I don’t know it. Rumor has it that this movie was filmed with heterosexual women in mind, so I keep translating the plot and the character’s relationships into movies of the past 20 yrs featuring lesbian characters. Those movies made money, avoided some of the hubbub and were generally inoffensive, like watching Willow and Tara’s relationship on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I keep thinking of the movie Kissing Jessica Stein, which was directed (and/or written by) a straight woman. It’s a quasi-lesbian movie that was inoffensive.

Brokeback is kind of the same.

There’s nothing really epic or new about it. Nothing terribly gay about it either. The only “gay issue” it truly tackles is being closeted and it only vaguely whispers of the threat of gay bashing/lynching, and doesn’t get terribly invested into the emotions surrounding those issues.

Maybe this is what makes the movie great – that it transcends common themes found in gay drama to just stick to the story of the relationship.

Procrastination! Theme: Skin care! Shopping! Organics!

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The internet is great for continuing to procrastinate writing NaNoWriMo related stuff. Most recently I’ve been researching skin care products for these annoying dry patches I get on my face and body during the winter. Part of me wonders if it’s like a mild eczema, though I doubt it’s anything more than flakey, dry skin.

Years of working at Whole Foods Market (mostly during grad school) has made me more aware of the contents of my food, cleaning and bodycare products. It’s a snobbery that is almost warranted at some times, given that there is a LOT of crap in everyday products that are either unnecessary, possibly toxic, and at other times, just gross. (Have you even SEEN the guacamole dip sold in the cold case at some of the large grocery chains? Look for the avacado content. Shudder when you realize it’s not there, or at the end of the list, under sour cream and a whole bunch of hydrolyzed, autolyzed and otherwise manipulated contents.) It’s not so much that I fear death or cancer at the hands of these products, but feel rather that if guacamole can be made at home using 5-8 ingredients, mostly containing avocado, then why make it out of mostly sour cream and a few dozen other things. Beyond that, it would be nice to be able to not only purchase less-toxic products, but also products that come from sustainable sources. When it gets down to the nitty-gritty, I’ve started to have a real distaste for the artificial and now prefer the real thing.

Body care is a special issue, though, when it comes to natural and organic products. There is no FDA standard or regulation that specifies what the words “natural” and “organic” mean with body care. They definitely mean something for foods, but you can seriously make a product that’s chock-full of synthetic detergents, artificial colors and fragrances, and maybe throw in some organic aloe vera and organic lavander and call your product “Organic Spring Shampoo” or whatever you want to call it. This means if you actually care about the contents of your bodycare products, you must read labels and not go by flashy packaging or ad copy. Then you have to have some sense of organic chemistry and the taxonomy of herbs to decipher what’s naturally derived and what’s synthetically produced. Yay! The end result is that in a normal grocery/drug store you might be lucky to find one brand that is actually as organic and natural as it claims. Here in the Northwest, Burt’s Bees is happily ubiquitous in the regular stores. Not so, I’m sure, in middle America.

Natural bodycare, of course, beyond being hard to find, is costly. And lucky for me, last winter I got hooked on products by evanhealy which I purchased in Chicago. They were rather pricey, though, and required me to order them online… so I used it up and tried to find better options. Since then, I’ve tried Better Botanicals semi-Ayurvedic based face care and have been relatively unimpressed. I’ve also tried MyChelle, which has GREAT cleansers and a fabulous exfoliant and night creme, but doesn’t really have a day cream that I really love.

The only thing I remember liking, and pretty much using up, was the TimeWise cleanser and lotion by Mary Kay which I had bought from a coworker while I was interning for my MSW in Chicago. Hardly a bastion of natural skin care, it did leave my skin feeling pretty nice and hydrated without feeling weighted down by thick emollients.

I keep thinking that if I’m going to go the Mary Kay route, I should just use up the UV-protecting, Sensitive Formula Oil of Olay that I bought for BurningMan 2K4. I can’t bring myself to do it, though, and I’m not sure why.

Tonight I will be turning in two free coupons for free swag at the local Aveda store. Aveda, along with The Body Shop, have long promoted a natural, sometimes organic, cruelty free and/or earth-friendly facade for their bodycare products. Through the years, though, I’ve found some of their products hard to distinguish from the contents of other supermarket bodycare. Maybe the plus is that they’re done w/ more sensitivity to the environment, or maybe they provide better paying jobs from some of the less industrialized countries that they get their materials from, maybe they offer their employees a 401-K and stock options. It’s really hard to know what is marketing, what is actually doing some good and what is just poisoning the earth like every other corporation (unavoidable in some cases, but at least let’s be upfront about it.)

Tonight I will see what Aveda, and possibly also the Body Shop (or one of the other mall bodycare specialty shops) has to offer for my fickle, no-nonsense, just wash-and-moisturize-me skin.

And now… back to attempting to write fiction.

* One last thing – I’m also shopping for less-toxic toxic-mold killing cleaning products. I’m tempted to just dilute bleach and say to hell w/ it, but I really want a better option.